Instant messaging chat sessions are becoming popular with individual consumers as well as business organizations. Instant messaging chat session offers real-time communication and easy collaboration between participants compared to other forms of communication lack (e.g., email or letter). Also, instant messaging chat session enables a plurality of participants to communicate in a single chat session. Further, instant messaging chat session allows participants the flexibility to enter and/or leave a chat session at will. However often time, whenever a new participant joins an already existing chat session, there may be no way for the existing participants to identify the new participant. Moreover, employees for a business organization may use an instant messaging chat session during a crisis situation (e.g., one or more network elements malfunctions) and the instant messaging chat session may involve a plurality of participants from various departments having different roles (e.g., Developer team member, Manager, database administrator (DBA), Production support). Frequently, participants to an existing instant messaging chat session may not be aware of an escalation level (e.g., level of management involved) associated with the crisis situation. Therefore, recognizing an escalation level for new/existing participants of a chat session may be necessary to identify the seriousness of the crisis situation. Also, recognizing the escalation level for new/existing participants entering a chat sessions may help new/existing participants to identify whom may be involved in the chat session.
These and other embodiments and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the various exemplary embodiments.